Well, everyone, you can now submit a comment to let the FCC know what you think about SpaceX asking for 1 million satellites for "AI datacenters" whatever the fuck that means.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-113A1.pdf
Comments due March 6.
I am having a very hard time believing this is really happening. Fuck you, SpaceX, and fuck you, FCC. This is not regulation, this is a fucking joke, that will destroy our ability to use satellites for centuries.
@teresa_athome I tried this, but it only seems to work for documents in the ECFS database. This SpaceX filing is in the ICFS database, which requires registration and login to an FCC portal (which I’m not sure I feel comfortable doing). Ugh, this is so convoluted… 😑
Link to filing in ICFS database:
https://fccprod.servicenowservices.com/icfs?id=ibfs_application_summary&number=SAT-LOA-20260108-00016
@SunnJax What a pain. The regular process is pretty easy. I haven’t run across this one before. (I have been lucky.) Something else to bring to the attention of my electeds. Thanks for the heads up.
There’s supposedly a way to comment via email if you request the form for instructions. I’ll update after I hear back.
@sundogplanets @aarbrk 26-113 matches the format of past proceeding identifiers, but it isn't in ECFS (yet?). I also had the email failure reported elsewhere.
The fallback is to mail a signed original, with *four* copies - details at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-comment#paper
I reported the issues using consumercomplaints.fcc.gov - they were forthright that I'd not be hearing back, but maybe it will unstick a fix.
If somebody wants to venture into this, please test all steps.
The first one involves sending an email to ecfs@fcc.gov with "get form" and your email address in the message body.
The reply I got was trying to strangely gaslight me:
"Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
ecfs@fcc.gov
Your message couldn't be delivered. The Domain Name System (DNS) reported that the recipient's domain does not exist."
There seems to be a strange subdomain falstaff.fcc.gov involved. The attached error log says:
Joanna Bryson, blathering
Prof. Sam Lawler
Lauren Weinstein
jbaggs
Michael Kohne
Wandering Star
teresa_athome
SunnJax 🕯️🏳️🌈 
Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק
rvandegrift
bamfic
Seán Fenian
katzenbergerDiagnostic information for administrators:
Generating server: SJ0PR09MB11735.namprd09.prod.outlook.com
ecfs@fcc.gov
Remote server returned '550 5.4.310 DNS domain falstaff.fcc.gov does not exist [Message=InfoDomainNonexistent] [LastAttemptedServerName=falstaff.fcc.gov] [SA2PEPF00003023.namprd09.prod.outlook.com 2026-02-05T12:30:46.776Z 08DE6078A5284768]'
This is boring stuff, but when your server tries to deliver mail, the first thing it does is look for the MX records for the recipient's domain.
It looks like they're using Microsoft to run their email system.
My first guess is that they're changing their mail servers, and somehow your message got stuck during the transition.
1/2
Then it looks up the numerical address of the mail server. That's working as well. I think that if you try again, it will work.
The caveat is that when you query a DNS server, the answer gets cached for a while. So you might have to wait for your server's cached copies of the data to expire. But the data that's live now is good.
@katzenberger @sundogplanets
# whois.nic.gov
Domain Name: fcc.gov
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.nic.gov
Registrar URL: https://get.gov
Updated Date: 2025-07-21T18:50:44Z
Creation Date: 1997-10-02T01:29:23Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2026-07-16T18:50:44Z
Registrar: get.gov
Registrar IANA ID: 8888888
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
Sorry, how does one submit a comment?
They have instructions here
@sundogplanets have you ever thought of using the surface of the ocean to show the non-maths how this looks on a smaller sphere? Get them to drive a boat through the grid or something tangible.
I don't think they understand 3D...or 2D
@sundogplanets A.I. data centers in space is such a batshit crazy idea, it's hard to believe anyone takes it seriously. But they do.
It's just mind-blowing. Like living inside a comic book.
@sundogplanets let me marh this badly...
At a launch a second they could have that sucker up in months. At a launch every hour it'd take more than a century. At a launch a day millenia. Assuming of course one satellite per launch. That's just the getting to orbit bit. Fabbing the satellites might well take longer. After of course the lead time to ensure hallucinating chatbots are not on the worse granola.
@jamesb192 Yeah, I ran some very rough numbers earlier and I think with 30 satellites per launch and one launch per day it would take almost a century, which is in line with your figures.
Of course that was under an assumption that no failures or other reasons for replacement on-orbit would be needed for the period. Which is… unrealistic.
Problem is, I suppose, that in the current climate, we can't just assume "it's madness and makes no sense, and therefore won't happen".
I appreciate any Americans that submit a complaint, but who exactly gave an American regulatory body authority over the whole of low Earth orbit and beyond?
Colonial theft.
@sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity @EricLawton I think we - non US people - have to turn to our governments to tell them to stop this insanity.
Not that I have much confidence in the swiss gov, tough...
@EricLawton @sundogplanets @PhoenixSerenity
or is it because they have authority over SpaceX as an American company - and the US already believes it can tell American companies what they can do in other countries.
You are way more optimistic than I.
They'd just argue over who is responsible and do nothing until we're Kessler'd.
@shaknais @sundogplanets more pragmatic, if half internet crash and some comunication become imposible, the pressure from both international entity and their own citizen will be so high they cannot do nothing.
The cost on the other end will cripple their economy, because clearning space will not be cheap
Most of the internet is underground, not over your head. There would be little impact on that front.
And what sattelites there are, are at different orbit heights than the proposal, limiting the impact further.
@shaknais actually some internet comunication are handled by satelite, and many TV channel too, but yeah majority are sea cable.
but the GSM network use it quite often actually so goodbye 4G and 5G in many region, the tower will still emit it, but it might be isolated from the network (as not all tower in all country are fibered).
Whilst SpaceX and OneWeb are "excited" abput satelite in 5G - its not actually deployed anywhere at all, yet. Just promises since 2020.
4G satelite systems are backhaul, and cover about 0.5% of deployed systems. The kind of places where bad cloud cover means you don't have satelite, either. Cat3 remote type places.
Musk will probably notice if we lost 4G sat, and make some pissy tweets. Most people won't even notice.
Elon the illegal South African Nazi predator just can't stop pushing his unwanted stubby nub of a weenie in people's faces.
What a dirty pig.
@sundogplanets the good thing is that Elon Musk has never delivered on anything he's ever promised, and this would require rocket launches at such an wildly high pace that I don't think they could come close to pulling this off.
It's just to juice SpaceX IPO and then musk can be a trillionaire. If the next US administration comes to be, this plan is dumpstered for sure.
@kiri @sundogplanets you’re not missing anything; this is absolutely the problem with data centers, structures famously constrained by their ability to reject heat, in space, a place famous for its insulative properties. It’s stupid.
Not to mention that data centers require maintenance and equipment replacement. This aspect of data centers is why companies decided not to put them in the ocean (where heat would be easier to reject). How do they think they’ll do maintenance? Or do the satellites just become trash after a few years?
@mmcknett @kiri
RE
constrained..reject heat, in space.. It’s stupid...
data centers require maintenance and equipment replacement
@sundogplanets
RE
fucking joke, that will destroy our ability to use #satellites for centuries
Anything #SpaceX wants is probably crap bc #ElonMusk is the guy driving the bus
And another way to destroy the use of space satellite tech is to have #WW3 which is what will only make big tech richer, 🥵
@nomdeb
Thx 4 orig Prof. Sam boost
@mmcknett @kiri @sundogplanets
There's also the problem that computers running in space must be more resistant to radiation than the ones we use down here.
The chips used there are different (and slower), use bigger semiconductor scale.
AFAIK this just can't work, even aside from the issue of having a million additional satellites...
(see https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/)
@mmcknett @kiri @sundogplanets
I suspect Musk knows this won't work. He doesn't care so long as more naive investors throw money at him.
@kiri https://www.physicsmatt.com/blog/2025/12/11/the-dumbest-thing-ive-seen-this-week
And as an interested non-expert, I personally get the feeling that Matt is being more generous than the facts *should* allow, but at least he's showing his math and coming up with a conclusion of "dumb" and "stupid idea".
Given that it is 2025, the dumbest thing I’ve seen this week is some stiff competition, but “AI datacenters in space” is some impressive idiocy. I’ve seen a few breathless media reports on how AI companies are planning to launch entire datacenters into space. Some of these articles point t o a si
@sundogplanets But SpaceX will “scal[e] to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” How could you possibly be against that?!?
Yeah, it’s batshit crazy, Musk is hyping for IPO (although I don’t know if he believes it himself… he’s huffed his own farts a few times too many). I’ll be astonished if more than, I dunno, a few dozen ever get launched. By that point, it should be clear what a stupid idea it is.
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